Rt Hon Jeremy Thorpe, MP

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Thorpe

Documentary adventures that encourage you to take a closer listen.

Eleven years after the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality in the United Kingdom, a sequence of events unfolded that would rock the British political establishment and test those campaigning for gay rights in the United Kingdom. It resulted in a dead dog, a political career in ruins, a classic comedy sketch and the cause of gay liberation being set back years.

Through remarkably candid interviews not previously broadcast in this country with Norman Scott (the former model) and Andrew Newton (the suspected hitman), two of the main protagonists in the trial of Jeremy Thorpe (former leader of the Liberal Party), this documentary revisits a very English scandal and gauges its impact on the struggle for gay rights.

We hear from the human-rights activist Peter Tatchell; a member of the Brixton Faeries, Julian Hows, who staged a satirical play based on the Thorpe case; and Tom Robinson, whose song Glad to be Gay hit the charts in 1978. We also hear from Derek Stimpson, archivist of the Worshipful Company of Gunmakers, and archive of Peter Cook as the 'biased judge'.

Archive of Norman Scott and Andrew Newton from 'The Jeremy Thorpe Affair' courtesy of CBC Radio's Sunday Morning (1978).

Listen BBC Lights Out: A Service for Society Available to the 16th of November 2021

When the three-part mini-series “A Very English Scandal” hits Amazon Prime on June 29, it will be received by a much different audience than the one that rapturously watched it on BBC One last month. That audience was presumably much better-versed on the scandal that inspired the series (and the John Preston true-crime novel it was adapted from), which involved a closeted gay member of Parliament named Jeremy Thorpe, a male model, blackmail and a murder plot.

If you aren’t familiar with the history, one of the pleasures of the series is watching it unspool in all its stranger-than-fiction glory. But if you want some background, or you’re fuzzy on the details, here’s a primer on the key events and players, as well as on the shamelessly lascivious tabloid coverage that swirled around the story.

Who was Jeremy Thorpe?

Thorpe was a member of British Parliament for 20 years, where he served as representative of the North Devon district. In 1967, at age 37, he assumed leadership of the Liberal Party and held the post for nine years — more than doubling their voter support.

[%E2%80%98A Very English Scandal’ Is Very Good. And Scandalous. Read the review by Margaret Lyons.]

He was also rumored to be gay, and although he did not acknowledge it (particularly because male homosexual acts were against the law in Britain until 1967) and married twice, he only admitted to homosexual “tendencies” during his 1979 trial. He insisted he was never more than friends with Norman Scott.

Who was Norman Scott?

Scott, an author and former male model, was a stable boy when he met Thorpe in 1961, but he first appeared in the British press in January 1976. Under the banner headline “THESE WILD SEX CLAIMS,” the Daily Mirror reported that Scott, while appearing in court on a charge of defrauding a post office, made an “astonishing outburst”: “I am being hounded by people the whole time just because of my sexual relationship with Jeremy Thorpe.”

What was the nature of their relationship?

According to the Mirror, Thorpe quickly supplied a statement refuting Scott’s claims, saying: “It is well over 12 years since I last saw or spoke to Mr. Scott. There is no truth in Mr. Scott’s wild allegation.” But within days, the same paper was reporting on the “riddle” of a payment of 2,500 British pounds Scott said he received in exchange for letters from Thorpe. Scott said the transaction was handled by Peter Bessell, from whom he reportedly received a “monthly retainer” for six months in the late 1960s. Bessell described those payments as charity for a “destitute” man, and that “no further significance should be read into those payments.”

Who was Peter Bessell?

Bessell was a former member of Parliament — in fact, he was Thorpe’s closest friend and confidante in Westminster. According to Preston’s book, Bessell was one of the few who knew about Thorpe’s sexuality and was aware as far back as 1965 of the potential the young man presented for blackmail. Bessell later testified that he had been privy to discussions in which Thorpe insisted he would be better off if Scott were simply killed. He left Parliament in 1970 to pursue business interests in America; the British tabloids described him using their typical flair for the dramatic, the Mirror referring to him as the “runaway former Liberal MP.”

Who was David Holmes?

Holmes was a wealthy banker, one of the deputy treasurers of the Liberal Party and a loyal friend of Thorpe’s (he was best man at Thorpe’s first wedding); shortly after the £2,500 payoff became public knowledge, he came forward to admit that he had supplied the funds. But there was more: Holmes was accused of hiring a hit man, allegedly at Thorpe’s prodding, through a chain of contacts that included two acquaintances named John Le Mesurier and George Deakin. The man they allegedly settled upon was an airline pilot named Andrew Newton; Holmes, Le Mesurier and Deakin would eventually stand trial with Thorpe for conspiracy to murder.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/28/arts/television/a-very-english-s...

https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/british-anti-apartheid-movement

Beginnings: Boycotts in the Fifties

On 26 June 1959, the Committee of African Organisations (CAO) held a meeting at Holbourne Hall in London, calling for the British public to boycott South African products, especially fruit, which was widely available in towns and cities throughout the UK. Julius Nyerere, then leader of the Tanganyikan African National Union (later to become president of Tanzania) and Kanyama Chiume of the Nyasaland African National Congress were the main speakers, and the Congress Movement’s Tennyson Makiwane African National Congress (ANC) and Vella Pillay South African Indian Congress (SAIC) added their voices to the appeal.

In November 1959 a Boycott Committee was formed, and the CAO’s Dennis Phombeah was made chairman of the body. Other organisations played an important role in the committee, including the Movement for Colonial Freedom, Christian Action, and the Universities and New Left Review. Patrick van Rensburg of the South African Liberal Party also took on a significant role, and he asked Chief Albert Luthuli to issue a statement calling for an international boycott, which Luthuli did in a press release dated 21 December 1959. The AAM came to regard Luthuli’s statement as its founding document.

According to Kader Asmal: ‘If any event galvanised the Boycott Movement into action it was Chief Albert Luthuli’s plea for sanctions”¦’ Luthuli’s statement read: ‘I appeal to all governments throughout the world, to people everywhere, to all organisations and institutions in every land and at every level to act now to impose such sanctions on South Africa that will bring about the vital necessary change and avert what can become the greatest African tragedy of our time.’

The Boycott Committee set about organising for a month of boycott action in the New Year, and support came from a wide range of sources, including student bodies, unions, various newspapers, writers and artists and the Liberal and Labour parties. British public opinion was overwhelmingly against apartheid, especially in such communities as those from the Caribbean, and the committee tried to tap into this sentiment to win support. However, in some quarters the idea of a boycott was anathema – except for a few church leaders, most churches failed to heed the call. Most members of the Conservative Party also refused to support the call. Indeed, when Prime Minister Harold MacMillan made his famous ‘Winds of Change’ speech in the South African Parliament in February 1960, he condemned the boycott.

Other organisations were more forthcoming, and in December 1959 the Labour Party and the Trades Union Congress, the vast union federation, officially backed the call for a boycott.

The boycott month, set for March 1960, began with a march to Trafalgar Square, where the South African High Commission was based, on 28 February 1960. As many as 15,000 held a rally at Trafalgar Square after the march, and speakers included Labour leader Hugh Gaitskell, Liberal MP Jeremy Thorpe, and Tennyson Makiwane, with Father Trevor Huddleston in the chair. The event received favourable coverage in the press, and a Gallup poll found that 27 percent of those polled supported the boycott.

The Sixties - Sharpeville and After

When police fired upon anti-pass protesters in Sharpeville on 21 March 1960, there was widespread international condemnation of the apartheid regime. British newspapers splashed the massacre on their front pages, and for almost a week hundreds of people demonstrated outside the SA High Commission in Trafalgar Square. While the call for boycotts had been a huge success, the massacre reinforced the British public’s abhorrence of apartheid.

The subsequent banning of the liberation organisations had the effect of sending many ANC and PAC members into exile, and increased the ranks of the organisations’ offices abroad, especially in London. Some have argued that Sharpeville precipitated the formation of the AAM, but the Boycott Committee had already in mid-March made the decision to internationalise the boycott. When the ANC, now underground, called on the United Nations to impose economic sanctions on South Africa, the resolve of the Boycott Committee to expand the campaign was strengthened, and the movement took on its new name, the Anti-Apartheid Movement.

At the Boycott Committee’s meeting of 20 April 1960, the minutes reflected the name change. Yusuf Dadoo, a leader of the SACP and SAIC who had recently arrived in London, suggested that the AAM call on the UN to impose economic sanctions, and that the AAM call on the union movement and African states not to handle oil headed for South Africa.

The transformation of the Boycott Committee into the AAM saw the movement shift its tactics: the call for economic sanctions became a call for regime change, set within a discourse of national liberation, rather than a moral plea to help nudge the apartheid government to reform. However, the call also became a threat to the financial interests of sectors of the British economy, and put the AAM on a path of conflict with powerful corporate blocs and conservative politicians.

Anti Apartheid Movement Activities in the Sixties

With South Africa set to become a republic in May 1961, the AAM called for the country to be expelled from the Commonwealth. When newly independent African states joined in the call to expel the country, South Africa was forced to withdraw from the body. Barbara Castle, the chair of the AAM’s London committee, organised a 72-hour vigil to publicise the issue.

The AAM organised a ‘Penny Pledge’ campaign, appealing to British people to donate a penny to the movement and sign a pledge to boycott South African products. The boycott campaign was supported by the Labour Party, but the party stopped short of calling for economic sanctions. Labour’s support would take on an erratic pattern in the following years: when Oliver Tambo had difficulty in entering Britain, the party intervened; but it did not support the AAM when it organised a speaking tour for Tambo.

The AAM organised the International Conference on Economic Sanctions Against South Africa, held in April 1964, which saw delegates from 40 countries in attendance. At the meeting, Abdul Minty and Vella Pillay met with ES Reddy, the secretary of the UN’s Special Committee Against Apartheid, and forged a relationship that would continue until the fall of apartheid.

Following the conclusion of the Rivonia Trial, in which Nelson Mandela and other ANC leaders were sentenced to life imprisonment, the UN Security Council set up a panel of experts to look at ways to oppose apartheid. The AAM set up the World Campaign for the Release of South African Political Prisoners, and launched a worldwide petition, which was signed by 194,000 people. The AAM organised a letter campaign, calling on people and organisations to bombard the South African government with letters demanding the release of the Rivonia Trialists.

When the accused were sentenced on 11 June 1964, 50 MPs marched to South Africa House in Trafalgar Square. On 18 June, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 191, calling on South Africa to release all political prisoners.

The AAM was instrumental in getting various councils to oppose sport and cultural contacts with South Africans. It worked with the South African Non-Racial Olympic Committee (SANROC) to get South Africa excluded from the Tokyo Olympic Games in 1964. ...

https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/british-anti-apartheid-movement